


Impressions of Eternity

by mylordshesacactus



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: 50 Themes, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 08:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2017692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylordshesacactus/pseuds/mylordshesacactus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of the Hunters; past, present, and future. After all, they have forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impressions of Eternity

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing graphic enough to warrant an archive warning, but a minor content warning for blood (in the appropriately-labelled section 'Blood') and brief mentions of canonical character deaths. No HoO spoilers, nonlinear prompts. Enjoy!

**Freedom**

When Thalia kneels before Artemis and takes her oath, she can all but feel the weight of the world drop off her shoulders, and for the first time in her life, she is _free_.

**Bonds**

It takes Zoë all of three hours with her new family to decide that bonds of blood are highly overrated.

**Clouds**

Even as the daughter of Atlas flees for her life, a tiny part of her registers her wonder at the clear sky, utterly devoid of boiling clouds and scattered with stars.

**Moon**

Juliet was an idiot, Thalia decides, for saying the moon was inconstant and disloyal; Artemis remarks idly that they both made very fine jackalopes, and Thalia once again revises her knowledge of the classics.

**Comfort**

Thalia feels she sticks out like a sore thumb the first time she sits down at Artemis' right hand; but then Cynthia reaches out and squeezes her hand gently, and the circlet finally feels  _right._

**Rain**

Just because she's a daughter of Zeus and doesn't get rained on unless she wants to, Thalia grumbles under her breath while collecting firewood in a downpour, does not mean she wouldn't rather be _inside_.

**Sky**

Zoë always navigated using Ursa Major, Thalia recalls; but she can never look at the stars now without watching the newest constellation, so she learns how to use it as a map. She feels safer with Zoë guiding her, anyway.

**Fear**

She has faced countless monsters, played with a dragon, witnessed the fall of Troy and Thalia Grace's driving, and Zoë has never experienced true terror until the moment her goddess (her lady, her savior, her  _world)_  is half a heartbeat from being gutted like an animal right before her eyes.

**Socks**

After a few weeks living with Ari McMurphy, Thalia gives up on ever being able to find matching socks; she just tries to stop them from being used as firestarter.

**Name**

The flower is beautiful but deadly, so Zoë takes her name from it, because she can no longer introduce herself as "daughter of Atlas" even if she wanted to; and besides, what better name for a nymph of the sunset?

**Potatoes**

Demeter would be angry about the blatant abuse of such a useful legume…but it's winter and she's upset anyway, so Thalia sees no reason to interfere with Ari's impromptu game of Potato Hockey On Ice.

**Blood**

Until she managed to fight her way to Kim and Tori's side and realized blood had already stopped flowing from the lacerations, Thalia harbored a vain hope that they could be saved.

**Confusion**

When she realized Zoë wasn't going to make it, Thalia's world turned upside-down, because she realized she would  _miss_  her, and it didn't make any sense.

**Light**

Artemis loves Zoë dearly, so she makes a genuine effort to hide her laughter behind a kiss to the forehead as her poor overworked lieutenant moans feebly into a pillow in an attempt to ignore the rising sun; such are the perils in losing track of how many glasses of Olympian wine one has indulged in.

**Happiness**

The news reaches the Hunters quickly that Luke has somehow survived the fall, and Thalia knows she shouldn't be relieved, but she is.

**Enterprise**

Thalia was reluctant enough to spend the day with Apollo; she would have refused outright if Artemis hadn't conveniently forgotten to mention he was a _Trekkie_.

**Worry**

Tori never lets Kim out of her sight, but the beautiful daughter of Aphrodite still reaches out anxiously from time to time as if afraid her sister will disappear and leave her alone in the dark.

**Trapped**

With her legs crushed under that stupid statue, Thalia watches the only true friends she has left run off without her, and for the first time she realizes the world is already starting to leave her behind.

**Telephone**

They don't know where Ari got her smartphone and they're not about to ask; all they care about is that she has the best pizza place in the country on speed-dial.

**Breathing**

Thalia had never realized what fresh air really was until she took her first breath as a Hunter.

**Jealousy**

Even after two hundred years, it still causes a flare of pain and—she admits it—a bit of anger when Thalia realizes that no matter what she does, she will never be Zoë's equal; not to Artemis.

**Promise**

She never tells anyone but her goddess what they talked about in the cab of that crappy old pickup; but she told Zoë that if anything happened to her she'd make sure the Hunters were safe, and that's what she plans to do.

**Tears**

In the middle of the battle for Olympus, amid screams of pain and anguish, one girl sheds tears of pure joy, because for a terrible minute they thought Alene hadn't made it out of the tunnel before it collapsed.

**Home**

The others can think what they please; to Thalia, Camp Half-Blood is and has always been home.

**Ice**

Ari is shivering uncontrollably, dripping wet and huddled under a thick blanket next to the fire, but she's grinning like the maniac she is; because, sure, the ice wasn't as thick as they thought it was, but it had still been the best game of Potato Hockey  _ever_.

**Gravity**

Phoebe tries not to laugh as Thalia inches nervously across the reconstructed bridge to Olympus, but she doesn't try very hard, so Thalia sets her hair on fire.

**Chocolate**

Olympian chocolate is not only heavenly—no pun intended—it's also safe to eat as much as you like; this, Thalia muses, is probably not a good thing, and she's grateful she burns so many calories.

**Star**

Every time she sees a shooting star, Zoë wishes for things to stay the same, and after a few millennia she begins to suspect that Zeus likes tormenting her.

**Technology**

Contrary to popular belief, Zoë is perfectly comfortable handling modern mortal technology; she was there when it was  _invented_ , it's about time the mortals came up with an answer to Iris-messaging anyway, and quite honestly after the moon landing she's pretty difficult to impress.

**Waves**

Thalia is less than amused; the waves at the beach are perfectly calm while she walks with Annabeth, but the minute her friend is called away a huge breaker knocks the dark-haired daughter of Zeus off her feet.

**Hair**

Thalia had always planned to keep her hair short, but Kim was always the one to cut it; her eventual thick braid feels like a testament to her fallen sister.

**Weakness**

She tries to be strong when Artemis meets her halfway to the hall of the gods to tell her about Luke, but the goddess' eyes are too knowing, and she ends up sobbing into her lady's shoulder.

**Devotion**

Thalia never understood the Hunters' blind loyalty until Artemis held a dying Zoë in her arms, and she realized it was because the devotion worked both ways.

**Heaven**

The Hunters flank Thalia defensively when they meet the campers in Manhattan, and even though she knows their protectiveness is unnecessary she's on top of the world knowing that they care.

**Hell**

Artemis takes pity on her and goes inside first, to explain things to the Hunters; but even so, the utter silence when Thalia walks in with the silver lieutenant's band glittering almost indecently on her brow is enough to make her sick.

**Loss**

Ari was at least fifty years old, but in many ways she was still a child; she asked innocently after the battle where Angela was, and all present felt a pang in their hearts when they realized that she never _really_ thought her new best friend wouldn't come back.

**Sun**

She may be a Hunter, and he may be irritating and infuriating, but still…Apollo _is_  kinda hot.

**Completion**

Finally, Cynthia stands and holds out a hand, and Thalia takes it hesitantly; the other girl pulls her close in a warm hug, and suddenly the daughter of Zeus wonders what she was worried about.

**Pain**

Thalia tries to wave Diana away from her injured leg, telling her that Sasha needs a lot more attention; but at the look on their healer's face she knows that the girl is beyond help.

**Soft**

Kim is asleep, leaning against a tree with Owen the timber wolf's head resting lightly in her lap; Thalia smiles as she watches them, because not everything in nature is about fighting and she sometimes has trouble remembering it.

**Sickness**

The Hunter's enchantment means that Ari doesn't get pneumonia, but Artemis shakes her head and says teasingly that one of these days she's going to let the girl fall ill; maybe it would teach her a lesson.

**Death**

When the Hunters finally straggle together again after the battle, they are too few.

**Hands**

Becky learned a number of new curses from her siblings at Camp, and she isn't above using them on the Hunters, or laughing when Ari yelps and whips her hand out of Becky's knapsack with an enchanted mousetrap clamped onto her fingers.

**Speed**

Thalia didn't realize how fast she was running that first day, until she realized they were keeping pace easily with the wolves.

**Smile**

It took days after Zoë's death, but Ari finally smiled, and Thalia was glad; though she really wished it hadn't required an explosion.

**Gift**

When Thalia finally tracks down her mother's collection of sports cars she immediately turns and tosses Ari the keys to the Porsche, and for a moment she's afraid the little girl will actually die of happiness.

**Flame**

The car is totaled in a week, of course, but all the Hunters are impressed by the size of the fireball.

**Melody**

Zoë very rarely sang, because it reminded her of the Hespirides; but when Alene was cold and scared, she held her close and murmured a sweet lullaby, and Cynthia, out of respect for their privacy, pretended she hadn't seen.

**Innocence**

The Hunters are young and sweet-faced and soft-spoken, and it is always a unique pleasure to watch them take down sons of Ares twice their size.

**Forever**

Thalia often stargazes, watching Zoë's constellation, and realizes all over again that she has _forever_ ; sometimes it's overwhelming, but more often she's glad she never has to leave.


End file.
